Chitosan Hydrogel Supports Integrity of Ovarian Follicles during In Vitro Culture: A Preliminary of A Novel Biomaterial for Three Dimensional Culture of Ovarian Follicles.
Fatemeh Hassani, Bita Ebrahimi, Ashraf Moini, Ali Ghiaseddin, Mahshid Bazrafkan, Gholamreza Hassanzadeh, Mojtaba Rezazadeh Valojerdi
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: culture (IVC). The present study reports the first application of a chitosan (CS) hydrogel in culturing mouse preantral follicles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this interventional experiment study, CS hydrogels with the concentrations of 0.5, 1, and 1.5% were first tested for fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Compressive Strength, viscosity, degradation, swelling ratio, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) cytotoxicity and live/dead assay. Thereafter, mouse ovarian follicles were encapsulated in optimum concentration of CS (1%) and compared with those in alginate hydrogel. The follicular morphology, quality of matured oocyte and steroid secretion in both CS and alginate were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The expression of folliculogenesis, endocrine, and apoptotic related genes was also evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and compared with day that in 0. RESULTS: in CS group was significantly higher than that of the alginate group (P≤0.05). CONCLUSION: The results showed that CS is a permissive hydrogel and has a beneficial effect on encapsulation of ovarian follicle and its further development during 3D culture.